In our raised beds we have spring greens, potatoes, carrots, peppers and tomatoes. There are snap peas growing up the fence. The chickens are rocking along. They give us 4-5 eggs a day and going to check for eggs is still SO much fun.
We love all our easy dinners on the patio this time of year. Surrounded by flowers, our herb garden and creative fairy garden.
Happy days outside! Before it gets too hot and buggy.
Here are some clues from out scavenger hunt, for the big gender reveal we did for the girls. The video we have of them doing the scavenger hunt is priceless, even the end where the two little girls are honest about their hope for a brother – We just had to laugh!
The hunt kept them running around through the house as it went from boy clue to girl clue, then ended with a PINK egg in the chicken coop.
So it’s a GIRL! F-O-U-R girls!!!
We are expecting her arrival mid-August. The anticipation leading up to finding out if it was a boy or a girl was fun too. We waited till I was about 15 weeks to tell the girls I was even pregnant. The girls are intuitive. And yes they were starting to question and comment. However they didn’t really believe I would get pregnant again. So the big sisters were skeptical when our five-year-old came to wake them up one morning with the news, “Mommy has a baby in her belly.” They needed an ultrasound picture as proof.
Then we went to Colorado (and yes I skied pregnant, carefully!) At 18 weeks we found out it’s a girl and local word started traveling fast. Now I’m 24 weeks and waiting for summer to fly by – because you know it will! And we are soon to enter full-blown baby fever here.
The dissuasions have moved on to names now. We are all over the board – litterly as the blue chalkboard has turned to names being discussed daily. Even the girls’ friends from school have handed me lists of their favorite names. I never imagined having an almost 11 year-old and a newborn, or being a new mom again at age 39. But now that it’s happening I’ve totally accepted we are not in control of this journey, how we shape our family or really much of anything else.
This is going to be everyone’s baby. My oldest has calculated her baby siting age and her going rates. And it’s already been determined this baby girl’s feet may not touch the ground until she is two-years-old. And I’m already thinking about how to sew a baby wrap for my oldest girls to wear her!
Yes there is lots happening here. And it’s really all just beginning.
A Simple Moment is a post that appears here every Friday.
A photo I want to remember of a simple moment, with a few simple words.
If you are inspired to do the same, leave a link in the comment section for all to see and read.
Last week My girls all had the flu. This week was Spring Break and I had a terrible head cold. My countertop looked like this Thursday – as I made more rounds of Elderberry Syrup, Eucalyptus bath salts, homemade yogurt and unpacked “feel good” stuff from the store. I was grateful for my neighbor who watch my girls so I could get some essentials.
A Simple Moment was inspired by SouleMama. Visit her site to see many more moments.
A Simple Moment is a post that appears here every Friday.
A photo I want to remember of a simple moment, with a few simple words.
If you are inspired to do the same, leave a link in the comment section for all to see and read.
Upon driving home Sunday I found this – these two posting a sign advertising their new dog walking business. Their creativity, innocence, and entrepreneurial spirt makes my natural momma heart smile.
A Simple Moment was inspired by SouleMama. Visit her site to see many more moments.
After a few days of her being convinced the tooth was coming out right now, and reminding me I NEEDED to make her Tooth Fairy pillow right now, – we sewed it together. Secretly I was thankful that her tooth literally hung in there a few extra days, buying us some quality weekend time to make the pillow, and time for me to accept that this was happening.
She requested a heart shaped pillow, because it was Valentine’s Day. We looked through leftover fabrics that have been used for various projects since she was born, appearing in bits and pieces the last five years. And now, the pillow is hanging on her bed post waiting for the next tooth.
To sew:
1. Cut out the heart shape for the front and back of the pillow.
2. Cut out the small heart for the pocket, using two layers of the same fabric so the inside of the pocket shows the same fabric when placing the tooth in the pillow.
3. Use heat and bond material and iron the two pocket pieces together back to back.
4. Sew the pocket onto the front piece of fabric, leaving the top open for the pocket.
5. Choose a ribbon to and pin and place between the large front and back pieces of fabric.
6. Sew the front and back together, sew over in the ribbon, and leave open space on side for inserting stuffing. I used a straight stitch and left the edges to fray.
7. Stuff the pillow and sew up the opening.
She did finally lose that tooth. And then another the following week. And now she is telling me about another lose tooth – that I’m sure she will wiggle, and pull and leave in again until it literally falls out. It’s her way. And I’m glad. Because have I ever told you that teeth totally gross me out? They do. I love making Tooth Fairy pillows and seeing the wide eyed smiles upon discovery of what the Tooth Fairy left. But I don’t pull teeth. I don’t touch teeth. And I surely don’t save old teeth! Imagine, what would I do with 60 old teeth! My girls believe the Tooth Fairy uses the old teeth to make her house. I like that theory and I’m sticking with it.
So once the tooth goes in the pillow pocket – poof – it becomes a house. And is replaced with shinny glitter dollars. 
Don’t gasp…Five dollars only happens for the first tooth here. There after it’s three dollars a tooth.
There were so many trinkets and treasures to discover at The Emporium and Flying Circus in downtown Aspen. And oh for the love of handmade beeswax candles, soaps, infused olive oils, felted scarves and so many more things I didn’t capture – because who wants to look like the strange paparazzi person in a store shopping? Not me. I was letting myself enjoy the moment. 
Here’s the view around the corning. This is why I love being in different places. There is nothing like travel to bring out a new sense of adventure and perspective.
There is a little town of Carbondale down valley from Aspen near where my brother, sister-in-law and niece live. We ventured there one afternoon for yoga and stepped into a few other places.
One was a fresh produce store selling local goods, eggs, meat, bread and spices. I was inspired by the quirky simpleness of it all.
Lastly we stopped in True Nature Healing Arts. It’s a beautiful retreat center with a kitchen, yoga studio, outdoor space, shop and much more. Here is a snip bit of what I want to remember. 
Present that day was a woman who makes necklaces of mala beads and sells them there. My sister-in-law and I both bought a necklace. When we left we stopped by the Colorado river to cleanse them and let them dry outside. The woman who makes them is named Alexa Webster and you can find her on Etsy at Seeds of Remembrance.
This are my beads, called Summer Solstice. Alexa does amazingly beautiful, meaningful work.
Since I started with March I’ll leave you with a snapshot of my saying Hello March 1, from the chairlift at the Aspen, Highlands. It was a beautiful way to greet March, say goodbye to winter and look forward to Spring.
The director of my girls’ school hired a bobcat and someone to plow the driveway so the children managed to get in two days of school last week. Most schools were out for a solid two weeks, after President’s Day weekend.
Here’s the pictures our neighbors were texting us of our snowy house and the chickens who were barely able to walk in the deep snow. 
We were in Colorado visiting my brother’s family and skiing in Aspen (where they live).We were a little bummed to miss more snow days in our neighborhood – when kids run everywhere, stopping here and there for hot chocolate, lunch and cinnamon rolls at whichever house is serving it up next.
However being somewhere else, where the town doesn’t stop at at little snow is refreshing. In a ski town people do the opposite – everyone hops in their cars and hits the ski slopes. Grocery stores don’t sell out because people are stocking up as a storm comes in. Instead, food shelves are bare because delivery trucks can’t make through the mountains to bring the deliveries. No one complained. They just kept skiing. And so did we.
I like to ski, along with the ski culture, and the great lunch stops only accessible by skis (or snowboards). Like this one, where they only serve pizza and two kinds of cookies baked at 500 degrees in the woodburning pizza oven. It’s so high up there is no running water and they have composting toilets.
By Thursday my oldest two girls did a ski race and both took third place. 
By Friday we had a family ski day where my five-year-old was skiing blues with us. They are awesome kids and love this skiing culture their cousin has shown them.
Here’s the whole family, with my brother, sister-in-law and niece who can ski anything on the mountain including double blacks where she hikes an hour to get to the top! 
And now the weather twists keep going. We thought we were being smart this year and planned to fly through Dallas instead of anything north that get hits with delays from snow. Today the Dallas airport is shut down by a rare ice storm and more than 1000 flights were canceled. So we are still in Colorado and I’ll guess we’ll just strap our skis back on until we can get a flight out.
A Simple Moment is a post that appears here every Friday.
A photo I want to remember of a simple moment, with a few simple words.
If you are inspired to do the same, leave a link in the comment section for all to see and read.
My little one reading a Bob book to our old cat Vera, a survivor ally cat who has been with us for 14 years and currently on her 19th life.
A Simple Moment was inspired by SouleMama. Visit her site to see many more moments.
Fortunately we never lost power. Our Hackberry tree however, lost two big limbs the size of two trees. It broke the zip line but the fence survived. The rest of the tree will have to come down. I hate that. Because I love having trees all around our house, as long as they are not a threat of falling ON the house.
Between sledding activities there have been several crock pots of hot chocolate gone in one clean swoop of neighborhood kids coming in for a quick warm up. In addition to that was a pot of tomato soup, vegetarian chili, grill cheese sandwiches, cheese quesadillas, tacos plus beverages for the adults. These are snow days (or ice days). The days seem long. The play is hard. The sledding is fast. The kids are merry. And at the end of the day the kids are tuckered out.
This morning my girls were outside sledding from 8:30-12:00. I’m so thankful for tough girls who love to play outside. And now, as I type, they are all back out again running from yard from yard and the air is filled with sleds crunching on ice, little voices and then sleds stopping on concrete patches of melting ice.
The snow/ice mixture was predicted to start around 11:00 Monday morning. The girls were waiting anxiously. The night before they did all the superstitious stuff to bring snow – spoons under pillows, white crayons on widow sills, ice in toilets, pajamas on inside out and backwards.. and more. In the morning they got all the dolls dressed for the cold, with ice skates, skis and homemade ice skating rinks on the porch – waiting for the snow to start.
When the sleet started, they went inside to warm up and our fireplace hearth looked like this.
And the play was like this, waiting for some white stuff to play in.
Then we had a sheet of ice on the ground. They headed outside to crunch in it, discovering it made for really good sledding!
And the fireplace hearth turned to this.
Over night this happened.
Along with the beauty and peace of ice.
With that came more sledding, and a little bit of white stuff. 
The sledding hill at the park was so slick a sled was not even necessary. 
When they got thirsty, they ate icicles.
Despite still freezing temperatures, the roads are clearing up. Still, most suspect schools will be out for a for a couple more days due to bus routes and hard to heat buildings. This was a pre-scheduled day off for our Montessori kids. Their school is rarely canceled for weather and they love when they can throw snowballs during outside playtime. Unless it gets worse tonight, I have a feeling life will be back to normal tomorrow. But the non-normal is lots of fun for two days.
I didn’t sew new outfits for the girls to wear on Valentine’s Day and was reminded by my middle girl that she “CAN’T” go to school without an appliqué heart shirt. It was nice to know she appreciates these things and doesn’t forget them with time. So my special middle girl was the only one who went to school with a “new” heart shirt on, because she came downstairs with a shirt from her closet at bedtime and insisted I put a heart on it. Of course I did. And of course I forgot to take a picture. The youngest girl was just fine re-wearing her outfit from last year. And that’s kind of how we roll around here these days. Letting go and accepting that sometimes this is all we can do in one day. And being thankful for the moment we are in. 
The school bake sale is my favorite thing about Valentine’s Day. It’s a room full of home baked goods and handmade loveliness. Topped with 250 kids excited about the one day of the year that sugar is allowed at school, armed and ready with pockets full of dollar bills. I organize the bake sale every year and spending my day at school is the best Valentine present. The sale makes about $1200-$1400 every year and the funds go towards improving the outdoor spaces at school.
It’s so sweet seeing the kids stuff as much as they can fit in their arms and find ways to spend every last quarter in their pocket.
This year I sewed table runners to sell. And made “Shake and Make Hot Chocolate,” as well as some cupcakes and cookies with the help of my little one. 
And now…..on Monday…we are waiting…for the snow to come. We hope we get more snow than ice. As we wait in our home decked out for Valentine’s day and with dolls wearing ice skates waiting for the weather to begin.