A walk in the extended yard.

We are very fortunate to live on a quarter acre.  While it is enough for a small garden and some chickens as well as our house and some play area, it is not enough for a hike.  We are fortunate that our neighbors across the street live on the rim of a ravine that has been turned into a park.   So in the fading warmth of Indian summer, we went hiking.  The husband and kids challenged themselves by crossing the creek (in these parts pronounced like the first syllable of cricket) I instead took the bridge.  It's funny to look at some parts of the trail to see what looks like the remainders of an old stone foundation.  Or, my kids favorite, a rock balanced precariously upon another that they call pride rock.  

(Insert lesson on glaciation.)

Yes, we are fortunate...how many can say that they have a waterfall in their (extended) backyard.

The kindness of community

It's worth getting to know the small business owners in the area.

It's worth asking them their recommendations for products needed, or if they want to get rid of pallets.

It's worth building these foundations for a day like Sunday.

Saturday night the local deer had a meeting followed by a party in my garden.

They voted and decided to leave the squash alone (this time) since last meeting they ate squash leaves.

This time they decided to eat the tomatoes in the front right side as well as the swiss chard and the green beans

(but only if they are new and bearing flowers and new little sweet beans.)

Yes, they ate my tomatoes (but left one giant one alone!)

So I went to the garden store and Mike was there...

He asked how the chickens were and if I needed any feed...

"No I bought some when you (Mike) were on vacation a few weeks ago...

We're good, it's just the deer..."  

I told the story about the deer and their local union meeting and after party...

So we decided on a fine liquid fence.  

He also suggested a gun or bow and arrow.

I then went out to look at the plants...they always make me happy to see...and something amazing was out there...12, one year old strawberry plants for $8...but wait...a 50% off sign was next to it...I went in and asked if the strawberry plants were half off too...and by golly they were.  

I went out to study them...I called my husband about them as just a few days ago we were discussing strawberry plants and our future as growers of strawberries...

and I checked what they had...one everbearing and eight June bearing.  

That's all that was left.  

Mike then came out and asked if I wanted any, he'd load them up (that place loves to load up you car for you...nice thing about the "small town" feeling of our area) and ring me up...I thought I'd buy 3 pots (36 plants plus daughter plants coming out everywhere so closer to about 50.) but only one of them is ever bearing..."We'll have strawberries in June...just have to have a little patience." I told Mike.  

"Well, take them all." was his reply..."not everyone has vision like that."

I now have over 100 strawberry plants in my back yard.

All for $12.
I still need to plant them, but this is where they will go.  I need to put down compost and straw and then plant, but this area has been liquid fenced and should be safe until I get the time to do this... so I may just get some berries after all...
with some patience and vision.

Laura and the Laundry

Often I am in the midst of piles of laundry.

Clean

Dirty

Thrown out of drawers by one Miss. C.

Shoved under items.

In hampers

In baskets

On the floor.

In the washer.

In the dryer.

Clothes everywhere.

W. and I have been slowly reading through the Little House books.

I am reading ahead...what can I say, they're addictive.

In the later books, she spends great amounts of time describing what people wore.

What the style "back east" was.

What would Goody's book say?

Talking about working making shirts at the dry goods store.

Or hiring out to the dressmaker's  (7am-5pm bring your own lunch for $0.50 a day)

Sewing all day during the winter or knitting lace with friends.

So much of their time was spent making clothes, yet it seems as though they each had 

1) lots of underclothes that were worn several sets at once (one must be proper petticoats, drawers, union suits etc.)

2) an every day dress and apron (or for the man folk, what we would call a dress shirt and slacks.)

3) a best dress (or a suit)

The best dress may be rotated to the everyday once the everyday was through being worn (or not depending on what it was made of.)

Children's clothes were made with growth in mind; seams could be let out as could hems to allow for the growing child.

Man do I long for those days.

Laundry was a hassle (Monday wash and Tuesday iron, but no purple dye #17 to get out of clothes after Grace painted...just stove blackening.)

But think of it...no folding...no laundry everywhere.

People cared for their clothes and didn't think of them as disposable as they do so in modern society.

Clothes were time, raw product, and lovingly made.

Not cheaply made in Indonesia.

Socks were knitted by the fireplace during the evenings when family spent time together talking, singing, and being together.

Old clothes were put in a scrap bag to be remade for smaller clothes for siblings, or trim for the curtains.

Sheets that were worn had the center seam torn and then the far sides were then sewed together to make "new" sheets...ones already flipped were then made into curtains or dress linings or quilts...

Yes they were stylish.

Yes they were thoroughly modern for their day.

Laura embraced technology and loved modern things.

I have read some about her later days and the modernization of her farm through the years.

But often I wonder what would Laura think about today's modern society.

Mr. Matt Mann

We have a new friend in our house...

He helps us write stories.

He often is found laying down on the kitchen counter.

C. says he looks like a monkey.

Get Set for School by Handwriting Without Tears is C's new favorite work.

We got it because W's occupational therapist has been doing Letters and Numbers for Me with him

for about a year now.

C. "NEEDED" work to do just like him.

(C has done half a book in a few weeks.)

It's funny how truly engaged she is in W's learning process.

Now my biggest fear is that they'll be in the same "grade" soon as she plows through work at a rocket pace.

It shows how each child is different.

W's strength is in his imagination.

C's strength is her determination.

Hiatus over

Well the last few weeks were full of packing, learning, and travel...

I am the world's foremost expert on being disorganized when it comes to travel and so it took me a whole week to pack up the van to go on vacation...were we met up with the Country (slacker) Sister and her family.

At a place where a vacant lot has a very different meaning...

Where we couldn't quite make jam this year (our hips were too green...)

Where we learned it is difficult to take a picture on rough seas of a lighthouse in the dark.

Where cousins like to hang out...

While the daddies play golf.

(see the point of rock to the right...the menfolk invented a form of golf played on it...)

Where siblings watch boats at high tide...

We had a nice time visiting with family on our vacation...

Yikes I need to tend to the garden...the volunteer squash took over the yard...

Into the woods...

We went "hiking."

Keep your eyes peeled...you never know when you'll see something.

What is there one moment...

May be gone a second later..

Berries in the sunshine taste best...

And occasionally you may see something you've never seen before.
Anyone know what it is?

Part 2...a journey of homeschool....

I've been working on the story of why we homeschool...It was a oddly quick decision that was made almost overnight when our preschool situation was not working out for us.  

So...

The whole family jumped in with all 8 feet.  Research via internet, reviews of curriculum, calling my sister, writing writing writing to sort out ideas...creating a budget (I quickly found that if I didn't things could get quite costly.)

Later (as in about 6 months later) my mother in law admitted she thought we'd gone off the deep end, but had come to the realization that we had made the right decision...and she as well as my mom were very supportive of our decision.

And away we went...

Buying curriculum, sorting it all out...

(good ole husband did a great job organizing since that is not my forte.)

Structuring days.

Finding home school groups.

Finding friends that support your decisions.

Dealing with a polite way of dealing with people saying X way was the only way and we should do it too...

Realizing that the real education is in the journey of discovery...

Making things fun.

Trying to overcome a severe case of Type A personality.

Trying to read all of Charlotte Mason's writings.

Exploring our world and finding new joy in every moment.

Finding the kids are best friends.

I am learning along with them.

Finding I am infinitely currious as well.

When the husband is home, I am discovering why he has always been such a sought after teacher.

We all love listening to him spin a tale of history and why things are the way they are.

How different life is when you have a teacher that cares.

Seeing the magic of everyday moments.

That is what learning is all about.

How did you make the decision to educate your child the way that you do?

A very happy birthday to who?

By the way...it's my sister's birthday today!
Happy birthday Country Sister.

Our first year...

Our first year of being one of "those homeschool families"  has come to a close.

What a year it has been, full of fun and frustration.

I've started our story several times, erased it several times, and yet again am attempting to tell our story.

It's a tale to be told in a few parts, as it began to get quite wordy...

My husband and I sent W. to preschool as all good suburban parents do at the tender age of 3.  With a new baby and two full time jobs, we thought it was a great idea.

Two mornings a week, he went off into a room full of children who were 3 as well.

Then it began...

"Mommy why isn't the green monster in school anymore."

We figured out that "the green monster" was a fellow classmate who was kicked out for behavioral reasons.

"Ann said it was okay...his mom gives him XYZ all the time."

Fill in the blank with all sorts of things W. was not allowed to have/ watch/ do.

Somehow he finished the year having done 100 crafts all with hand prints.

Summer came and went...we started noticing him having difficulty with things his now 18 mo sister could do.

Utensils, dressing, shoes...all mysteries to our dear W. but our little C. was able to do each task with ease.

We could no longer ignore these delays...I began to worry.

We signed him up for 4 year old school.

I began working on each of these tasks carefully.  Each outfit was picked based on simple ease of getting it on.

During the summer, W. also began wearing a brace on his chest to help his ribs grow correctly as his were growing too fast for the rest of his body and caused a dangerous protrusion.

I called the school to inform the teacher about it.  I had fears that he'd tell her we squished him, tied him up...or otherwise.  She never called us back.

Lack of communication should have been a warning light.

I asked if there were parent/teacher conferences...after all I'd like to know how he was doing.

Denied...

Until one day when I got a notice about parent teacher conferences the next week (thanks for the heads up...working parents need more time to rearrange schedules.)

W. broke his leg and he was out of school for a month since they couldn't (wouldn't) accomadate for him.

Snow days and cancellations caused it to be pushed back to after Christmas break.

Finally, at drop off she said she'd speak to me.

She announced that she thought it best for him to spend another year at preschool.  She was certain he had fine motor delays and language delays (side note...I'm a speech therapist for early intervention...his language was fine...he just chose not to obey...a big difference that a preschool teacher should be able to tell the difference between.)

also...

HE HAD TOO VIVID OF AN IMAGINATION

(Insert image of the citysister with her jaw on the floor.)

Calmly I asked...isn't an imagination a good thing?

He never went back to school.

We began homeschool immediately.

To be continued....

The golden hour

It was one of the days where the kids decided to fight, cry, and repeat...much to my dismay.  

Full of things that I know I would have found boring as a child.

Car repair, therapy, unloading the month's grocery order.

At last the last fight was over...

A calm reading of Little House on the Prairie (tough to do since it was the chapter about cowboys.)

To bed...Sweet bedtime...for the little combatants.

Momma Time!

Get outside and pick lettuce.

Check for eggs.

Dig up the volunteer tomatoes growing in the front yard (now how did those get there?

Right...C's pick a tomato, take a bite and throw game she loved to play last summer...)

Plant the peppers and most of the tomatoes amongst the lettuce, carrots and spinach.

Oh my...more tomatoes growing in the compost heap...big beautiful plants...better than some that I cared for for months...oh well.

Notice the Nasturtiums coming up with their odd round leaves.

Smelling the grass of the neighbor's mowing.

And as the last of the tomatoes that were going into the big bed...

the sun began to set leaving a golden cast to the word around me.

Ah the early golden moments of summer.

If I wrote a book...

While driving down a road that runs through a lovely neighborhood full of mature shade trees and old oil barron mansions, my sister called me (you know the one who is supposed to write here...)  

I told her how it was such a lovely street, but I was about to cross into the "he double hockey sticks" hole neighborhood that it bordered.  Same wide streets, same stately old mansions, but so ugly.  The mansions have been chopped into dirty dark little apartments with broken windows and blankets and boards covering the windows.  The trees have been chopped down so the sun is hot and blaring.  There is not grass, but tall weeds, dirt piles, and people everywhere.  I would love to travel back in time to see how the two neighborhoods used to be.  Even when I moved here 10 years ago, the latter neighborhood was much statelier... 

(I work in home based speech therapy.  It affords me the ability to be flexible in my work and explore the area while getting paid for it.

It is such interesting work, I really get to know the families and help treat my clients in a more holistic manner due to this.  

A person's environment is such a part of who they are.)

But I digress...

While talking with my sister, I was being stood up for an appointment.  

The address I was given was non existent.  

I decided that I'd go to the next client's "home."

"Home" is a loose term...it was a shelter.

My sister told me I should write a book about the experiences I go through.

A professor who's previous job had been similar to mine told me that in one year, I'd see everything there was to see in a job like this...and so I thought it was true.  

The first year I saw abuse, neglect, hunger and filth.  I saw hope and dreams smashed, and flickers of hope become reality.  I saw quick recoveries and sadly told a family that I was unsure if their child could hear (and was unfortunately right.)  

I saw extremely wealthy parents who smothered their child to the point where all needs were anticipated....so why would the child talk if they didn't need to?

I saw extremely wealthy families who ignored their family members to the point where my clients didn't talk because there was no one to talk to...

The Nanny Diaries could easily be a true story...I've seen cases like it many times...

(For those of you not familiar, it's the story of the nanny for a child with a stay at home mom who is never home and needs a live in nanny.)

I thought it's not so bad if this is everything.

I was wrong.

Every time I think I've seen it all, something comes at me out of left field (sorry baseball on the mind.)

Like the shelter.

A glimmer of hope...

I never thought it would be the way it was.

Light and airy...clean and secure...colorful and full of life.

A hand up out of the poverty that so many of these families live in.

Still it makes me thankful for what I have.

A family and a home to live with them in.

Land to grow our lives upon.

A sense of security.

Love.

Slowly over the years I have learned something.

I will never see it all.

I hope I never will.

My sister often inspires me to try things...maybe I'll try my hand at writing.

(and yes my husband I know you've suggested this as well, but so I don't bore you with crazy stories.)

Preparing for Failure...

Failure is ineveitable...it will happen.

It's how you choose to handle it is your choice.

We had our first home school "failure" last week.

W. usually has no difficulty with his phonics work.  He breezes through it with little trouble.

Then there was the "test" to see if he understood the concepts from the last ten lessons.

Usually he passes with a "A plus 100%" (Where he came up with the grading I know not.)

But last week he got one problem wrong (he read the word "no" with a short o.)

I want him to understand that sometimes you get things wrong.

You are not perfect...neither am I...we all have to deal with getting things wrong.

The X went next to the word no.

"Will it stay there...erase it mommy I need to get it right."

"You will get it right, sometime...just not now."

I tried to let him know a 96% is nothing to sneeze at.

We found 96 on the 100 wall chart...pretty near the end!

But it continued.   

For the rest of the day he tried sneaking to the book to erase the X.

He cried.

He didn't want to show daddy his "failure."

I tried to show him on the 100 chart where "failure" was.

He wasn't buying it.

I have been known to not handle failure very well.

When a plant dies.

When I wasn't perfect at school.

When a client wants a different therapist.

Yup...that kid is a lot like me.

Dratted perfectionist personality.

I used to get upset as well.

I used to burst into tears like he does now.

I now am able to keep it inside (for the most part.)

I am able to move on.

When my husband and I were dating, his mother and aunts bought me a book for my birthday.

It was A Tree Grows In Brooklyn.

I love the quote:

"Those were the Rommely women: Mary the mother, Evy, Sissy, their daughters, Katie, and Francie, who would grow up to be a Rommely woman even though her name was Nolan.  They were all slender, frail creatures with wondering eyes and soft fluttery voices...They were made out of thin invisible steel."

                                             -Betty Smith

Sometimes I long for that...to be made of thin invisible steel.  

Strong, invincible...letting life roll off of me and not bothering me.

This is how I desire to deal with failure.

I am thankful that I am able to deal with it.

I can rationalize that I am not perfect.

It was a lesson learned over time.

My dear husband helped me learn this lesson over the years as well...

(while talking me down from my hysterics when I had an exam on neuroanatomy and dysarthria.)

But how do you teach a child to deal with their need for perfection?

This and that...

You may or not know this, but Country Sister and I have brothers as well...in fact, sometimes since this is kind of a girl thing, I contemplate asking our sister-in-law to write here and there as well...

Well, I was late posting today and did not post on Saturday due to a visit from my brother and his family...While it was a short visit, it was a lot of fun.  We went to the zoo and to the Children's Museum...

There was lots of play and lots of cranky, sleep deprived children.  

So we spent this morning getting caught up on errands, chores, laundry, and sleep.  

We also made cookies.

My dear little C. decided that she wanted to make cookies with her mother, and I was okay with this because we have lots of little odds and ends around to make them with.  And since things were not scrumptious for you on Saturday...I will make today scrumptious...

Jumbled Cookies

3/4 cup butter

1 1/4 cup sugar

1 Tbs molasses

2 eggs (or 1 double yolker as we used today)

1 tsp vanilla

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp salt

1 cup flour

1 1/4 cup oats

2 cups fun stuff (I used malted barley chocolate chips, pecans, and raisins.)

Cream sugar and butter, add molasses, and beat well.  Add the eggs and beat well, then add the vanilla.  Stir in the soda and salt.  Then add the flour and oats.  Mix in the mix-ins, scoop out onto a cookie sheet by the largish tablespoon, then bake for about 8-10 min at 350.

I also have been working on something special, but I cannot show it...it's going to be a gift.  

I am contemplating buying this book...

Does anyone have experience with it?

Is it worth it?

I think I could come up with the perfect sweater that my husband wants for Christmas.

If he wants it then, I better start getting to work...

Which brings me to the new item on our sidebar...

Click on the Eat, Sleep, Knit.

button on the sidebar, and it gives me yardage towards my Yarn Marathon...

(and while you are at it, contemplate their yarn that is at quite a reasonable price.)

I may not run them in real life, but I'd like to be able to knit that much in a year...help me get there!

PLEASE...Pretty Please...with cookies on top!

A whole lot of haulin...

Sunday afternoon was a glorious time.  

It was so warm, almost hot.  

The sun came out and the children started begging to go out and play, and I can't say no to that for I was itching to get out myself.  

I've been reconsidering my garden space ever since I looked at all the seeds I have, and then looking at the little garden room I really do have.

So it began, the Spring expansion I have been planning all winter.  

I began hauling more rocks left by the previous owners.  They had rock walls that were not properly put together so their rock walls were falling every so often upon my strawberries and raspberries.  I moved these to the area where I was going to make our biggest garden bed to outline it and keep the kids and dog out of the area.  

Then I sent the kids on a mission.  

I had collected boxes all winter to the point were we didn't have a garage, we had a box storage area.  The husband was complaining about the vast quantity of boxes everywhere.  

The kids' mission was simple...get the boxes and bring them to me.  

They did this as I tore the boxes apart and placed them where I wanted the garden to be.  Then I placed the rocks around the border on top of the cardboard.  

After this, the kids and I dug the finished compost out and hauled wheel borough after wheel borough of compost to the new garden.  I saw worms a size I have never seen them before.  They must have been getting fat on the richness of the soil.  

They made new pencils look tiny.  

W. caught some of these and fed them to the chickens who would delight in playing tug-o-war with them.  

I still need some more soil, so I may dig up some of the soil from the last place we mobbed the chickens to destroy grass.  

It should be very rich due to the free fertilizer the chickens deposited for us there.  

Our next mission:

Potatoes and onions need to go in!

(Pictures will be added after the sun comes up...

if we ever see the sun...

it is Pittsburgh after all (famous for the lack of sun and overabundance of clouds and drizzle.)

Happy birthday...

...to me!

Remember being little...

Birthdays couldn't come fast enough.

I was mad because March had 31 days...one more day for me to wait.

My mom always made my favorite...carrot cake.

Now things are different.

I turn 30 today.

My hair is slowly turning gray (I blame C...most of it came as soon as she became mobile.)

I have responsibilities.

To me, it's hard to believe I've left my 20's behind...

A lot happened in my 20's.

I finished two degrees.

I got married.

Bought a house.

Had two kiddos.

Oh well, maybe my 30's will be equally splendid.

But for different reasons.

Stocking up...

Last night I roasted a chicken.  

I had to clear room out of the refrigerator and freezer due to the new month's supplies being delivered this morning.  

You will have to wait and see the Scrumptious Saturday this Saturday to see what I made, but for today, I will tell you about the stocking we did last night and this morning.

After roasting the chicken, I broke up the chicken leftovers into smaller pieces and put as well as the pan drippings into a pot and covered all the bones in water.  Then I let it simmer from dinner time to bed time.  

My dear husband was actually the one to take the pot off the stove and put it in the fridge so we didn't waste it.  

This morning I woke up early as I had received a phone call the night before from our dear Frankferds that our delivery would arrive between 7:30 and 9:30 am!  I put the pot on the back burner on low and continued on my day.  

The delivery came...Stocking up yet again with flour, yeast, canned goods, produce, and dairy delivered to the door. Then, once everything was put away, I realized that we were out of yogurt, so out came one of our 1/2 gallon bottles of milk.

I figured I saved quite a bit of time, money and energy by having the delivery made.  They drive right by here anyway and the cost of gas and time out of our schedule made it worth it.

 C. and I prepared the yogurt in our usual way. With that starting to ferment, we started in on the chicken.  

I drained off one pint of ultra concentrated chicken stock and then began to pick any meat that had boiled off the bones.  I got one pint of chicken meat pieces.  I then put some of the stock over the chicken pieces and topped both bottles off with water.  With that done, I broke up the bones once more into smaller pieces to expose the marrow and all of the goodness found there.  Again, covering the bones with water, I started up the pot.

During all of this we:

Ate breakfast

Read one chapter in "Little House In the Big Woods"

Did a phonics lesson

Did a math lesson

Had some free play time with connect 4

Did a puzzle

Got dressed

Got very silly with a monster chase game.

That's my story...

What did you do this morning?

UPDATE: Weighed remains of chicken after 2nd boiling...Used all of the chicken except 8.6 oz (from a 6 pound bird) Pretty good EH?

Reading...

My boy is not the only one who is growing up.  It is amazing how they grow.  One day they are tiny red screaming lumps, and the next they turn into little people, full of their own ideas and having adventures of their own.  My dear little C. has decided that W. will not be the only reading child in the house.  

We've been looking at letters for a while.  She loves putting together alphabet puzzles.  At this point, I think it is time to move on.  Last Friday we were at homeschool group, where they have a "mall" a.k.a. a long table filled with items people want to get rid of with money boxes and where the money is being donated to usually.  Last Friday we got...

A world wall map (a little old, but it will serve it's purpose at this point.)

A CD-ROM for history

A Clifford teacher's book

A story book

Teach your child to read in 100 easy lessons.

All for $5.00

Where else can you get that for $5.00 and give to a good cause.

I had plans for the last book.  C. has been showing interest in reading books.  She's picking them up and pretending to read out loud using the pictures as a guide.  She does a pretty great job and I love hearing her babble on about how the stories relate to her current life status ("The princess was looking for kitty cats, but the mommy said 'NOOOOO tackling the cat.'")

Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy...

Siegfried Engelman...

Best Price $5.98

or Buy New $12.49

Privacy Information

Today we had our first lesson.  She started insisting on helping point to the sounds.  She is even working on the phonemic and phonological awareness sections.  

The book recommends the program for three and a half year olds and older.  She just turned three, but she is loving it.  She loves anything that big kids do.  She is such an early riser that we have about 2 hours in the morning just for "us girlies" so I am planning on doing a lesson in the morning (it just takes 15 minutes or so) and then another lesson in the evening.  So maybe in two months I'll have an emergent reader...who knows.  I remember my grandmother teaching me to read when I was little.  I felt so special during our reading lessons because it was just the two of us.
I love getting our "girlie time"  with my little C.

W's now 6!

It's official...as of 11:11pm last night, W. is 6 years old.

We celebrate birthdays with lots of choice.

W. made the following choices:

No school work (except arts and crafts.)

Jammies all day.

Chinese takeout for dinner.

Sitting at the head of the table.

(He had to move his blue dot too...)

Lots of lemonade.

Dinner by candlelight.

Home made napkin rings.

Old blue eyes on the CD player.

So as he ate his Chinese food (attempts were made with chopsticks! It's a miracle!) and bobbed to the beat of a CD bought for background music for our wedding, we spoke about all the wonderfulness that he has brought to our lives.  

He loved having his day of choice...his day to shine and do all the things he wanted to.

My big guy.

My sunshine.

What dreams are made of...

It's amazing to me.

One day you are knee deep in snow, trudging through it to take care of the chickens and tap the trees, then overnight the warm wind blows and melts it all.  Sure the neighbors complain that their basements flood (plant something other than gravel!) but you instead see the beauty of it.  The mud, the faintly green of the grass and weeds.  It's the urge that you get to buy seeds, and the way that you wait for them to come.  Last year's food scraps have magically turned into beautiful crumbly soil, fertile and ready to be added to the beds to nourish a new year's growth.

You go to the feed store to stock up on other seeds that you want to put in right away, or maybe it's for the seed starting supplies.  The fresh spring air has a certain scent that is intoxicating.  The smell of barn and dirt, moisture, growth.  It may be hot in the sunlight, but cold and blustery in the shade, just a reminder from winter that he is still lurking in the shadows.  

The early seeds that you plant start poking their little heads up out of the ground, spinach, lettuce, and carrots sending up their first two leaves towards the cold early year sun under their makeshift cold frame.

 The berries start putting out little grey leaves, and those tenacious weeds complain and try to hold fast when you pull them up. Strawberries stretch out last year's hands between mothers and daughters.  The Rhubarb starts poking out bright crumpled green leaves on the deep red stalks from their white winter cover.

The mint and oregano start their yearly quest for garden domination, while the chive hangs out between them and attempts to avoid the rabbit's gnaw.

The garlic, so carefully planted from the previous year's best and biggest bulbs and then mulched the fall before, starts poking up to remind you that they are there.  Little chirps from birds working hard fill the ears, as does the slashing sound of the hoe.  You send the kids out.  Their quest is to pick up all the limbs, sticks and twigs that the harsh winter broke from the trees.  They will make a wonderful start to a birthday bonfire.

  It's a magical time of year.  

One full of possibilities, dreams and over planning.  

Thoughts of canning in the blazing summer heat have barely entered your mind.

Yet, you have planned everything that will become dinners, canning adventures, and freezer stuffing.

It is Spring.

Note: The page for Citysister's harvest has been updated...I am finally writing it all down!

Yarn along...

So I decided to join the yarn along since my sister is MIA

...In Ginny's words

~ Two of my favorite things are knitting and reading, and the evidence of this often shows up in my photographs. I love seeing what other people are knitting and reading as well. So, what are you knitting or crocheting right now? What are you reading? ~

We are reading Farmer Boy by Laura Ingalls Wilder for school.  I think it will take us a few weeks to get through, but W. loves how different "real" school is vs. "long time ago" school vs. "our school."

I am reading Growing 101 Herbs That Heal by Tammi Hartung.

I'm thinking about growing some herbal tea and making some lotions for my childrens' very dry skin.

I am knitting MY SOCK!

I was at the pool last weekend for W.'s swim school knitting.  An older lady started asking me about it and told me that I look like an old pro...yikes!

Soulemama had a giveaway a few weeks ago...and guess who won...again!

When it comes to her giveaways, I win the ones I want the most...art supplies and now beautiful yarn.  

It truly lives up to its name.

"Squishy"

The color was inspired by the movie Titanic.

I tried to get the beautiful subtle hues in it.

It is so nice.

I am planing on making a pair of socks for each of the kiddos out of it.

It is from Katie's etsy shop

 knit IT UP.

If you buy from Katie, put Citysister in the notes to seller 

PLEASE!

I want to be able to get more from Katie's beautiful shop!

And it is also grand to be able to help a "momtrepreneur."

And just one more shot of my sock...question for you knitters...

I always knit everything inside out...

what can I do?