Good Friday

Planting our Easter garden for the table.



Letting it grow...


Then gathering rocks from outside...


to build a tomb...

to lay a King who died for us.



Good Friday

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And then we planted seeds...


for hope of new life to come.

Reusable snack bags

I've been spending a lot of time in my sewing room this past week and I finished these little bags up just yesterday. We have to take our snacks with us most places but I get tired of carrying around plastic bags which we just throw away. So I found an easy tutorial online for reusable fabric bags and now I have a nice little stash growing.


I used tea towel material for the outside (from the fabric store, or an old tea towel would work perfectly too!) and unbleached muslin on the inside. To close the bag I used velcro but a drawstring would be just as useful. It's a great size for small hands and fits our snacks perfectly. And easy to toss in the wash when they get dirty.

Baby wearing boys

We brought up all the baby boxes from our basement last week. Neatly packed away were baby blankets, clothes, socks, and every other baby essential we ever used for the boys. We've been slowly unpacking them, remembering who wore what and when, and "oh do you remember when so and so used that!". Boxes full of memories that will only be added to when this new little boy arrives.

In one of the boxes was a Waldorf doll that we had bought for Ian when I was pregnant with Sawyer. He was barely two at the time and in typical 2-year-old boy fashion, he threw the doll across the room not looking at it twice. We kept it around for awhile but it never really got more than a cursory glance from him.

Last week, he grabbed it out of the box as fast as he could and asked what the doll was for. Ever since, he's carried the baby around, made a little bed for him, and makes sure he's taken care of.

Since I know we'll be wearing this new baby after he's born most of the time, I decided to make a couple baby slings for the boys so they could wear their "babies" as well. Ian was so excited when I told him that this is how Dad carried them.


The pattern is from Amanda Soule's book, sized down for kids. I repurposed some yellow curtains since the fabric was sturdy and then added a little color with extra pieces I had laying around. No cost to me but something new for the boys.



We are currently in waiting mode. He can come any time but I know it can still be a couple of weeks away. Trying to enjoy the last of this pregnancy while dreaming of what our life will be like with 3 little boys. In the meantime, we are ready for him and I have a lot of sewing projects to keep my busy.

Eating for two

I'm into the last 4 weeks of this pregnancy (till due date anyway!) and I'm finding this third time around to be the hardest. I'm well into my 30's now and it makes a difference in how I physically feel carrying this baby. Having two active little boys keeps me going which is good because I fear my natural tendency would be to lay down and rest continually.

The biggest change this time is my eating. While the choices I'm making are very similar to Sawyer's pregnancy, this time I'm 100% gluten free and about 75% dairy free. ( I've found butter and small amounts of cheese seem to settle just fine in my tummy so I have them occasionally). A few weeks ago I realized my normal eating habits were slipping because of tiredness and cravings. I settled for things I wouldn't normally and even ate a bite of gluten (regular bread!) here and there. I realized that my energy was severely waning, my digestion was poor, my skin was breaking out, and I was miserable.

So I brought back the green smoothies. Something I've been doing for a good 2 years now and the thing that I crave almost daily. I was shocked at the difference I had been feeling without them for a couple of weeks. The one thing about eating a clean diet is that trying to go back and enjoy something processed not only disappoints me greatly because it's never as good as what I remember, but it also sends my stomach and digestion into fits.

Our green smoothies vary from day to day and what I have on hand. I find I have to go grocery shopping twice a week to keep up with the veggies and fruit but again, worth it. I usually start them the same way:

-hemp milk or homemade almond milk as the base
-a banana or two
-lately I've added a spoonful of peanut butter or almond butter for extra protein
-frozen fruit like strawberries, blueberries, mango etc.
-a super food like chia seeds or goji berries
-and lots and lots of spinach, I just stuff the rest of the blender full of it.

The boys love the smoothies although they enjoy the fresh juiced veggies a little more if you can believe it. Either way, I try to keep it a part of our daily diet. I've found this works for me as a way to always get lots of raw greens in.

The rest of our diet consists of beans and legumes, gluten-free grains like quinoa and rice, all vegetables, cooked and raw, nuts and seeds, fruit, and many variations of these foods. We only eat meat about once a week at home so most everything I make is either vegetarian or vegan.

I have varied from this but again I notice a big difference in my energy level and moods. So to keep me happy I have to put the effort in, even at 36 + weeks pregnant. But my favorite, above everything else, is my green smoothie. I love it and it loves me back.

Lambing season

The boys and I took a 4 hour road trip yesterday to visit a sheep barn during lambing season. I debated about going... the program is only open 3 weeks out of the year so I knew this was our last chance but I AM pretty pregnant at this point so I just wasn't sure. But the adventurer got the better of me and we packed up early and set out. And we were not disappointed!

Sweet baby lambs, newly born, huddled close to their mamas.


The boys loved watching them...


And feeding the mamas.


They were encouraging the babies to come get a bite but they preferred mama's warm milk and no amount of hand gestures seemed to entice them away.


Everywhere we looked there were lambs tucked into the straw sleeping.


And a llama with funny teeth who wondered about all the attention.


Ian begged for the camera and spent a good part of the time taking his own pictures, like this one. Note to self... get the kid a used digital camera.


I couldn't resist this mama... she looked so happy to be laying about with her babies. Doesn't she look like she's smiling?


The land was beautiful and made us all dream of a little bit of space of our own where the boys can run and outdoor play would be endless.


Ian talked the whole way home about wanting to be a farmer and take care of his own animals. Either that or policeman he says. Whatever you want baby.


I think we'll be back here next year when lambing season comes again.

Februaryness

Feeling
The rain all around us.

Enjoying
Two recent Goodwill finds - a near-perfect wedding ring quilt for a few dollars and a new mug (with nettles tea... oh so good for pregnancy).

Reading
A new stash of library books. And I'm really enjoying them.

Seeing
Eloise try and sleep while the boys run around her yelling and playing.

Thinking about

Homeschool perspectives and loving her thoughts
Acquiring more of these
Remembering this, always
How much the boys would LOVE to be here

Dreaming about

A bedroom in white
A cozy kitchen with a blue table
A window seat I could spend all day in
A brick wall fireplace
An outdoor space that makes me happy
Another kitchen I want to cook in

Knitting 101... try, try again.

I'm realizing, not too late I hope, that everything that's worth learning takes time and sometimes involves many do-overs. With knitting, I find that I have to start over more often than I'd like to but I just tell myself that it's one more lesson learned and next time it will be easier. This was one of those times when I thought I knew what I was doing but the finished product turned out pretty bad. I mentioned before that I was working on a bulky blanket for the baby. It's pretty straight forward and I've been knitting for awhile now so I didn't think there would be any problems.

The biggest hitch came when I was knitting the green edge in the round. Meaning that I used circular needles so I couldn't see the shape of the blanket until I was completely done with it. And this is what I saw when it was all finished... ruffled edges because two of the sides had twice as many stitches as the other. I knew right away what I had done and it's a rookie mistake which is frustrating when my time to sit and knit is so precious. The blanket is supposed to be perfectly square but as you can see it was not.



And each of the corners were off kilter and looking more rounded then square. I put it away for the night but decided I loved the blanket and yarn enough that it was worth another attempt.


Thankfully I had just bought a new yarn winder a couple of days before so taking out my work was easy. No loose yarn to deal with and wind back up by hand.


Once I got back to two perfect skeins of green yarn I cast on again and started over. It was much easier this time to pick up the stitches on the uneven sides which is where I went wrong the first time. It's easy to edge something when you are following the next stitch on a pattern... not so easy on the sides of the pattern where it's less obvious where the next stitch will go. And that was my problem.

But a day and a half later, baby's blanket is finished... correctly.

I love the way the pattern calls to fold over the edging and bind off which not only makes the edge thicker but also cleans up the look.

Each corner squared out nicely. The yarn is an incredibly soft wool/organic cotton blend from Spud and Chloe. I used the Outer yarn in Flannel for the bulk of the blanket and the Sweater yarn in Grass for the edge. The best part is that it's washable.

Sawyer says he approves and I hope baby G will love it also. Only 6 1/2 weeks to go!

Birthday in pictures

Our earlier crafts...Window stars hanging just below the birthday sign.

And star lanterns made of watercolors painted by the boys.

Guests dressed in their finest

And new baby cousins to squeeze and kiss

Lots of help unwrapping the presents

Wonderful gifts, handmade and bought, that will get a lot of love.

Blowing out 5 candles this year

And becoming Indiana Jones.

A perfect birthday.

birthdays and birds

Valentine's Day? Around here it's known as Ian's birthday. We've gladly pushed the chocolate-giving, love-enducing holiday to another time. Every year I think about doing Valentine's crafts but the bigger of the events takes over and we never seem to mind. So this week we've been planning menus and thinking of birthday decorations that we want to have around the house. We are celebrating with family and friends tomorrow morning and there is a lot of excitement in the air.

Donuts are out the window (the smell of heated oil was too much for me... ick. And gluten-free dough just doesn't have the same hold as regular flour dough and the combination did me in). Instead we are doing muffins and salads and egg dishes, lots of coffee, and a huge chocolate cake to top it off.

We've been busy with little birthday crafts here and there.... watercolors...



tissue paper and glue....

and they are turning out pretty cute. (Finished craft pictures to come...)

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The other event that's happening this weekend (no, not the Olympics although I'm giddy they are starting too). It's the Great Backyard Bird Count. We started it last year and we've carved out 15 minutes today to just sit and watch. We've got our bird books, hoping to identify some of them, but mostly hoping to see a few even though it's raining. It only takes 15 minutes and a few moments online to add your own bird count and then it gets included in the national total.